Easy Dairy Free Mushroom Soup
Dairy free mushroom soup is a must for any mushroom lover. Easy to make, ready in 30 minutes and cooks in just one pot! This recipe uses simple ingredients but is full of deep savory flavors. It’s sure to become your go-to favorite.
If you your go-to comfort food meal is soup, you should check out my favorite soup recipes, including Greek Lemon Chickpea Soup and Butternut Squash Soup.
Here, you’ll find simple, gluten free recipes that are easy to make, quick and and packed with the best ingredients. I love sharing easy, from-scratch meals that fit into busy lives. To get to know more about Bites of Wellness and my fresh take on food, head over to the About page!
Why you will love this recipe
- Simple ingredients that let mushrooms be the stary
- Quick and easy
- 30 minute meal
- Better than store bought
- No canned soup
- Thick and creamy without any dairy!
- One pot meal
- Great for entertaining – this recipe is perfect for entertaining because its not only flavorful but also vegan, dairy free, gluten free and Whole30 friendly.
Spotlight on key ingredients
- Sliced mushrooms – I recommend a combination of white mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms (cremini mushrooms). You could also use all white mushrooms or all baby bella mushrooms.
- Shitake mushrooms or larger portobello mushrooms cut down into bite size pieces can also be used..
- Fresh Thyme – fresh thyme is what really gives this recipe its fantastic flavor. You can make this with dried thyme, you will only need 1 teaspoon.
- Vegetable broth – vegetable broth helps the soup taste like it’s been cooking all day on the stove.
- Arrowroot powder – arrowroot powder helps to thicken the soup, helping to create a creamy mushroom soup texture without being too thick. You can also use tapioca starch or cornstarch.
- Dairy free milk – dairy free milk helps create that creamy mushroom soup consistency and flavor without using any dairy. You can use almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, canned coconut milk (full fat coconut milk), or whatever your favorite nondairy milk is.
How to make dairy free mushroom soup
Chop the onions and slice the mushrooms. Bring a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions until slightly softened.
Add the mushrooms to the onions in the pot and cook mushrooms and onions for 5-6 minutes.
Add the fresh thyme, salt, garlic powder, bay leaves and coconut aminos to the mushroom and onion mixture.
Mix the arrowroot powder into the vegetable broth (or vegetable stock) and stir well until completely combined. Pour the arrowroot powder and vegetable broth slurry and the dairy free milk into the mushroom and onion mixture and allow it to come to a simmer for 15 minutes to thicken.
After 15 minutes, serve hot or you can blend up some of the soup with an immersion blender to thicken the soup a little more to create a creamy mushroom soup.
Top tips
- Time saving tip – You can buy pre-sliced mushrooms (white baby mushrooms or cremini mushrooms) in most grocery stores. This can help save you time on the prep of this recipe.
- Double or triple the recipe – As written, this soup only makes 2 large bowls, which disappears quickly. You can double or triple the ingredients to make a larger batch of soup. Just note that it may take longer to sweat out the mushrooms. Also be sure to use a large pot.
- To prepare the mushrooms, use a dry paper towel to brush off any soil/dirt you see.
- Wait to salt the mushrooms until after they have cooked down for some time. Adding salt too early can cause the mushrooms to not fully release all their water, which can give them a spongy texture.
Serving suggestions
This soup is creamy and hearty but not super filling since it’s mostly just mushrooms. Therefore, I recommend serving it as a starter/appetizer or served with salad and/or bread.
- Salad – Soup and salad go together so well (add a hunk of bread and call it a meal). Some great options would be Shaved Brussel Sprouts Salad, or Cruciferous Crunch Salad
- Bread or crackers –Homemade Seed Crackers, pita bread, or crusty bread warmed up in the oven.
- Grains – To make the soup more filling you could add 1 cup of cooked grains (rice, quinoa) to the soup.
Topping Ideas
Give the soup more texture by adding a topping. Some great options include:
- Croutons
- Fried onions
- Parmesan cheese (regular or vegan)
- Microgreens (broccoli, kale, arugula, radish)
- Fresh thyme leaves
Common Questions
What if you don’t have fresh thyme?
- Dried thyme – Dried herbs are much stronger, so you will want to use about 1 teaspoon.
- Herbs de Provence – add about 1-2 teaspoons
- Dried Italian seasoning – add about 1-2 teaspoons.
When using dried herbs, I recommend to rub them through your fingers, this helps release some of the natural oils in the herbs, giving them more flavor.
How to thicken soup without heavy cream
Arrowroot (or tapioca flour or cornstarch) is used to thicken the soup.
It’s important that you fully mix in the arrowroot powder into cold or room temperature liquid before adding it to the heat. This is to ensure the arrowroot doesn’t clump in the soup.
To make the soup even creamier, blend half of the soup with an immersion blender or high-speed blender to help thicken it more. You could also add pureed white beans or mashed potatoes to the soup to help thicken it without cream.
Can this soup be made ahead of time?
The beauty of this easy mushroom soup is that it’s almost better the next day, so if you are having company, this would be a great make ahead meal. Just give the soup a few minutes to come back up to temperature over medium low heat before serving.
Note: This recipe only makes 2 servings, so if you are making it for company, you will want to double the recipe.
If you love this recipe, you should try
Dairy Free Mushroom Soup
Guided Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 large white onion - diced
- 1 package white button mushrooms - 10 oz sliced
- 1 package baby portobello mushrooms - 10 oz sliced
- 10 stalks fresh thyme - leaves removed
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tbsp coconut aminos (or tamari or soy sauce)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder - optional
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour - or arrowroot or cornstarch
- 1 cup dairy free milk - unsweetened
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onions and cook for 5-7 minutes while you slice the mushrooms..
- After 5-7 minutes, move the onions to the sides of the pot and add the mushrooms, allow to cook 5 minutes.
- Stir the onions and mushrooms together. Add fresh thyme leaves and continue to cook, at least 10 minutes.Note: You will notice a substantial amount of water has come out of the mushrooms, and they are reduced in volume by half.
- Add the bay leaf, salt, coconut aminos and garlic powder (optional) to the mushrooms.
- Add the tapioca starch to a bowl with the vegetable broth and stir well to combine. Add the vegetable broth mixture and dairy free milk to the mushroom mixture and stir well.
- Allow to cook for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Equipment
- 1 Immersion Blender Optional
Recipe Notes
- This soup is amazing the next day as well and can easily be doubled or tripled.
- To make the soup creamier, you can blend half the soup in a high speed blender (be careful, it’s hot).
- To thicken the soup even more, you can add a can of drained white beans or boiled potatoes.
- A mixture of cremini (baby portobello) and white button mushrooms are best. However you can use all cremini or all white button mushrooms if you need to.
- If you don’t have fresh thyme, you can use 1 teaspoon of dried thyme.
- Dairy free milks that this works well with include: unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk, cashew milk or oat milk.
- Substitutes for tapioca starch include arrowroot powder or cornstarch.
- Fridge – Store leftovers in an airtight container up to 4 days in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove!
- Freezer – If needed, you can also freeze the leftovers for up to 2 months in a freezer safe container. However, arrowroot powder can get a little gritty after freezing. so I recommend that you don’t freeze it unless absolutely necessary.
I don’t usually leave comments but I felt I must this time.
This recipe is fabulous! I can’t have onions, so I did not even add onions and this soup still tasted amazing!!
You can’t even try to mess this recipe up.
I had to use coconut milk as that is all I had on hand. I simply added more seasonings and nutritional yeast to mask the coconut flavour.
Simply delish!!
Wowza!!!!! Really yummy. I used all the mushrooms in the frig that needed to be used so I added a little more of the other ingredients including 2 cloves of garlic, but I didn’t add any flour just used my stick blender and the thickness was perfect. This may sound crazy but I had a half of a cooked butternut squash which needed to be used so I cubed it and added that I’m at the end and it’s DELISH!!! A little sweet with the savory.
Thank you!!
So glad you loved it Nanci!!!
Can I use regular milk and flour or corn starch to thicken instead of using almond milk and tapioca? Thanks.
Yes you sure can! I would imagine the same measurements if you use the corn starch!
Loved this soup!! I added 2 cloves of garlic. I also blended a portion. Wish I had made a bigger batch. Will definitely make this again.
I’m ready to make this just a quick question – 1 cup veggie broth? Is that correct?
Reads like a winner. ☺
That’s correct!
Just made this for the second time. The first time I always use the recipe to the letter. This time, hubby asked me to blend part of the soup, and that turned out great. I used white wine to deglaze the onions, which also worked well. Absolutely fabulous!
A question before I make this: why is the sodium content so high, is it the veggie broth? We buy low-sodium broth & I usually don’t add salt to savory recipes, either–do you think these changes will cut the sodium much? We’re seniors watching salt intake. Thanks!
Hi Barb! The ingredient breakdown is based off very generic items and not your specific grocery items. If you need to know what your specific items sodium content would be, I’d recommend using MyFitnessPal and plugging in your items. I hope that helps, you are going to LOVE this soup!
Thanks, will do!
Absolutely amazing flavor! The only thing I added was 2 tsp of dry sherry. I did not have tapioca flour so used sweet rice flour. I will use it over my vegan mashed potatoes for lunch tomorrow.
I make soup ahead and freeze it for easy lunch packing. I made this tonight and it’s fantastic! I’ll add this to my recipe rotation! I’m wondering though, do you know if it will freeze well?
I was just searching the comments to see if I could freeze this soup..did you try it?
Hi Allison! I have to be honest I have not tried to freeze it yet. Even when I make larger batches it always seems to disappear before I can freeze it!
This Soup was amazing! The only thing I did differently was blend half of it in a blender to thicken it up instead of using flour. It was absolutely delicious!!
Just wondering, if I use dried thyme leaves in place of fresh, how much should I use
I would start with 1 tsp, but I’m not sure since I always use fresh! Hope you enjoy it!
I used about a tbsp of dried thyme. It seemed to work well
I made this soup this evening for hubs, who loves mushrooms! Very simple, fast, not to many ingredients & very very tasty! This will be a fall/winter staple recipe in this house! Would highly recommend! I used a combo of thyme leaf & powder instead of fresh. I think this soup is delish!
Does this soup multiply well for each ingredient. i.e., for 10 people, that’s a lot of onions!
Had a half container of button mushroom on the verge of going bad and wanted to make use of it. Also on a Daniel fast/ full liquid diet and looking for some excitement. LOL. Used this recipe for inspiration. Did not use any flour, nut cheese or nut milk. Just sauteed 1/2 half small onion with a dash of sea salt. Chopped up and sauteed mushroom with 1/2tsp of dried thyme and more OO. When i added back the onions I put another 1/2tsp dried thyme. Then 1/2tsp Worcester sauce, 1/2tsp Tamari(soy sauce), 1/4tsp garlic salt, bay leaf, 1 cup of Kitchen Best veggie broth (The best tasting veggie broth on the market). Had some Hatch diced tomatoes and chilies leftover so I added a 1/4 cup for a kick. I removed bay leaf and pureed it in my Ninja Kitchen Express chopper to fit my temporary diet. Delicious. Will try recipe as written in the future.
My 8 yr old daughter loved this soup so much she ate up the whole batch before my husband could get any! Making a double batch this time!